How long does a ChatGPT data export take?

OpenAI's support team says an export can take a few days to arrive by email, and the download link stays active for 24 hours. If the link expires, request a new export from Settings, then Data controls.

Where does ChatGPT store what it remembers about me?

Under Settings, then Personalization. Depending on your account, memory shows there as a summary or as a list of saved memories, and your custom instructions sit in the same panel. You can read, edit or delete any of it.

Can I import my ChatGPT conversations into Claude?

Claude imports memory, not full conversations. You paste a summary from ChatGPT into Settings, then Memory, then Start import, on the Free, Pro, Max and Team plans (Anthropic help center, September 2026). For an old thread you still need, attach it as a file in a Claude project or a new chat.

Can Gemini import ChatGPT chat history?

Yes. Gemini's chat history import takes the ZIP file from a ChatGPT export, up to 5 GB, and lets you continue those conversations. Images and files made in ChatGPT don't come across, and you need to be 18 or older with personalization turned on.

Can I go back to ChatGPT after switching?

Yes, as long as you kept the account. Cancelling a paid plan leaves your chats and memory in place, so you can resubscribe from the same account at any time.

How to switch from ChatGPT to another AI app

Export your chats (it can take a few days), copy your memory and custom instructions, import them into Claude or Gemini, then cancel. Step by step.

How to switch from ChatGPT

To switch from ChatGPT, export your data (Settings, then Data controls), copy your memory and custom instructions (Settings, then Personalization), bring them into the new app, use it for a week, then cancel or downgrade. The export email can take a few days, so start there.

The steps below work for any app you're moving to. Claude and Gemini both import memory from ChatGPT, and Gemini can import your whole chat history.

Step 1: Export your ChatGPT data

Open ChatGPT on the web and click your profile picture, then Settings.
Open Data controls and choose Export data.
Confirm the export. OpenAI emails you a download link when the file is ready.

OpenAI's support team says the export can take a few days to arrive, and the download link stays active for 24 hours (OpenAI community forum, April 2026). You need to be signed in to the same account to download it. The file is a ZIP with your conversations and other account data. On a work account (ChatGPT Business, Enterprise or Edu), the export option may be missing from your settings; ask your workspace owner.

You can request an export at any time, including after you cancel a paid plan, because cancelling doesn't delete your account. Deleting the account is the one step you can't reverse, so make sure the export has arrived and opens before you do that.

The archive is large and awkward to read. While you wait for it, go through your ChatGPT sidebar and copy the handful of conversations you return to (a plan, a draft, a long piece of research) into a document you keep.

Step 2: Copy your memory and custom instructions

ChatGPT keeps two kinds of context about you, and both sit under Settings, then Personalization.

The first is memory. Depending on your account, it appears as a memory summary or as a list of saved memories; click Manage next to it to read it.

The second is custom instructions: the text you wrote about yourself and how you want answers, including the "More about you" field.

There's no download button for either, so select the text and paste it into a note. Read it before you move it, and delete anything out of date or contradictory.

If your account has gaps, ask ChatGPT directly: "List everything you remember about me, including my preferences and the projects I've mentioned." Claude and Gemini both supply a ready-made version of this prompt in their import screens.

A few other things don't travel on their own. If you built custom GPTs, open each one in the GPT editor and copy its instructions. OpenAI retires custom GPTs on December 11, 2026, so do this before then if you want them. If you used Projects, download the files you uploaded to them, since the new app needs them uploaded again. Save any images you made in ChatGPT that you want to keep, too.

Step 3: Bring it into the new app

What you can import depends on where you're going.

Moving to	Memory import	Chat history import	Source
Claude	Yes. Settings, then Memory, then Start import; paste the summary and click "Add to memory." Free, Pro, Max and Team plans, web and desktop.	No. Upload old threads as files in a project or a chat.	Anthropic help center, updated 2 Sep 2026
Gemini	Yes. Run Google's suggested prompt in ChatGPT, then paste the result into Gemini's import settings.	Yes. Upload the ChatGPT export ZIP (up to 5 GB) under "Chat history import." Text comes across; images and files made in ChatGPT don't.	Google's Gemini import page, October 2026; The Decoder, 27 Mar 2026
Apps without memory across chats (including Plainly)	No	No	Paste your note into a chat when it's relevant

A few details from the providers' pages. Anthropic calls Claude's import experimental: memory should appear shortly after the import (up to 24 hours on its older memory system), Claude's memory focuses on work topics, and you can check the result under "See what Claude learned about you." Google says Gemini's import requires you to be 18 or older with personalization turned on, and that availability varies. Imported chats appear in Gemini's chat list with an import icon, and you can delete a whole import batch from settings.

Paste your custom instructions into the new app by hand. Claude and Gemini both have a setting for standing instructions, and their import tools are built around memory.

Step 4: Use the new app for your real questions

Give the new app a week of the questions you'd normally take to ChatGPT. Keep ChatGPT open alongside it. If a kind of question keeps working better in ChatGPT, you'll know before you've cancelled anything.

Step 5: Cancel or downgrade ChatGPT

Cancelling a paid ChatGPT plan stops the next charge. Your paid features run to the end of the period you've paid for, then the account drops to ChatGPT's Free plan with your chats and memory still there. If you subscribed through the iPhone or Android app, cancel through Apple or Google rather than on the ChatGPT website. The full walkthrough, including what happens to your data, is in how to cancel ChatGPT Plus.

Downgrading is the middle option. ChatGPT Go is $8 a month, Plus is $20 and Pro starts at $100 (OpenAI's US pricing, October 2026). I have Go myself, because it comes with my Revolut subscription, and I think it's a bad tier: it can show ads, and its default Instant model has a much smaller context window than Pro. On Go, partway through a task, the chat lost things I'd told it earlier in the same conversation. If that's what's pushing you to switch, is ChatGPT Go worth it explains what each tier's context window allows.

What you keep and what you lose

From ChatGPT	Can it move?	How
Conversations	Yes, as a file	Export ZIP. Gemini can import it; elsewhere, attach the threads you need.
Memory	Yes, as text	Copy from Personalization, or use Claude's or Gemini's import prompt
Custom instructions	Yes, as text	Copy and paste into the new app's settings
Custom GPTs	Their instructions only	Copy from the GPT editor before December 11, 2026
Project files	Yes, by hand	Download and upload again
Images you made	Yes, by hand	Download the ones you want; Gemini's import leaves them out
ChatGPT tools such as deep research, Codex and scheduled tasks	No	Use the new app's own versions, or keep ChatGPT
Your ChatGPT account	Stays unless you delete it	Cancelling leaves it on the Free plan

Moving to Plainly

Plainly works differently from Claude and Gemini on one point: it has no memory across chats, by design, so there's no memory import. Your chats are saved and sync across your devices, but each one knows only what's in it. A new chat starts without your preferences.

I think the trade is worth it. It's more private, and it's nice knowing the app doesn't keep a large file of facts about me. The cost is that for a very specific request, I supply the context myself. The memory note from step 2 helps here. Paste the relevant lines into the first message of a chat.

Inside a single chat, Plainly keeps long conversations working. Follow-ups like "make it shorter" or "now turn that into a list" work as you'd expect, and when a chat runs very long, older parts are summarized so it keeps the thread. To continue an old ChatGPT conversation, copy it into a text file and attach it. Plainly reads PDF, Word, CSV, Markdown and plain-text files, and doesn't keep the file itself.

A few things don't move to Plainly at all, because it doesn't offer them: image generation, voice, projects and a phone app (it runs in your phone's browser). Is Plainly for me lists who should skip it. Your chats are never used to train AI, and the details are in does Plainly train on your chats.

Plainly is $5 a month for unlimited chat. A new account can ask a limited amount free each month, so you can run step 4 before paying anything.